Rantings from the Left

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Hopefully Iowa means nothing

In 2008 the Iowa caucus winners were Obama and Huckabee. Meaning for the democrats Iowa predicted who would be the future nominee while for the republicans Iowa predicted who would be Fox’s newest anchor. I am hoping this most recent caucus is a similar predictor for the republicans. No, this is not because I dislike Romney (although I am not a fan) rather I am concerned that second place finisher Rick Santorum only lost by 8 votes.

Although, Iowa will most likely be the high point of the Santorum campaign it should be understood he could be the most ridiculous viable candidate.

First, let us look at his stance on abortion. He has decided to take the right wing, conservative, tea party stance even further than most. He not only believes any type of abortion is a complete abomination but he wants to outlaw contraceptives altogether. So basically he wants abortion to be illegal and he wants methods to prevent pregnancy to be illegal. His understanding of moral issues in today’s society is backwards and is completely catered to the small percentage of Evangelical or Born Again Christians.

Second, I recently heard sound bites of him in Iowa where he was speaking along the lines of helping states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Iowa by building industry from the bottom up. That is great but it is a shame that is not what he truly stands for. Building from the bottom up means helping out lower and middle class families. This in turn increases aggregate demand and promotes growth in the economy and improves the overall well-being of a society. However, Santorum throughout the debates has consistently been for the typical republican stance of solving all economic problems by decreasing taxes for the wealthy and under no circumstance ever raising taxes. That view is not in line with building an economy from the bottom up. That view is giving more money to the wealthy who will simply put it into their ban accounts and do nothing for improving the economy.

Santorum’s absurd stance on the issue of abortion and women’s rights along with his lack of understanding of how the economy works makes him a dangerous candidate. So I hope this 2012 caucus has the same importance on who becomes the eventual republican nominee as it did in 2008.